One of the best war movies every made. Period.

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2001)

This movie defines the word "epic". Everything here is massive: The biggest stars, the biggest cast, the longest running time, the most directors. Big, big, big. I still find this movie to be surprisingly fresh, even after forty years. No, it's not Saving Private Ryan, it's far better. But really, it's essentially a different movie. "Ryan" wasn't really about D-Day. It was about a small group of soldiers in battle--it was rather comparable to "Midnight Clear" with Ethan Hawke, or "The Victors" with George Hamilton. Not that it's a bad movie, of course, Ryan was imaginitive, and intense, but it simply can't compare to this incredible production.
The Longest Day gave great context, the issues and questions. It established the reasons, the strategy and tactics, and in some cases, the utter foolishness. Nothing here seems to go right for the AMericans and British, or the French for that matter. And I think the criticism about lacking in reality are utterly misplaced: I could just smell the fear of Red Buttons as he's dangling on the church, or the utterly exhausted and petrified Richard Beymer. Or the frustration of George Segal after his men die pointlessly. (Small spoiler here) When Jeff Hunter is killed, it's rather effective.
John Wayne is often thought to be a rather wooden actor, nothing could be the further from the truth; his bitter rage when coming across his dead soldiers hanging from the poles is trenchant, and one of the most memorable scenes in the movie. I think he can communicate more feeling and emotion in one look than many actors can in a soliloqy. There's a reason he's the center of this movie--because there aren't many actors of his stature.

Perhaps another asset here is that the producers avoided making the Germans into cartoon villains. They are some of the most impressive characters--actual human beings. They're caught up in the same situation as the allies, and are doing what they feel is right and honorable. And they don't use silly German accents to approximate speaking German, they just use subtitles--something directors who don't underestimate the intelligence of an audience do.
If there is a flaw here it's that we aren't really given enough of each actor--there being so many. They're not really given an opportunity to flesh out the people caught up in the storm. For the destructiveness of war on a grand scale, this is a wonderful movie. No, it's not the most deeply effecting when it comes to the human destruction--see "The Best Years of Our Lives" for that.